"Candy Candy" Manga is written by Kyoko Mizuki, Yumiko Igarashi

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This story happened before Albert was known as Sir William. It happened after Terry left Candy for Susanna. The rest is based very loosely from the manga.

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Story starts here...

One day in Chicago, Spring of 1918...

"You should do a better job than this, Neal," his father said angrily to him. "This is a very important client meeting. Yesterday you forgot to attend and today you came late. It's outrageous. You gave a very bad image to this enterprise! They might withdraw their deal because of your irresponsible behavior!"

Neal was just standing silently with his head bent down very scared to face his father.

"He's still young," defended Sarah, his mother.

"Your son is young and useless," said his father. He then shouted at Neal again. "In the past, my father would have beaten me if I had behaved like this. Your mom spoiled you too much, you are so good for nothing."

"Me? What about you? Did you even bother to educate him?" his mother shouted back at her husband.

"Fine, I'll do it. I'll beat him up now," said his father and moved to hit Neal.

"Mom," said Neal. He was so scared and hid behind his mother.

"You are so hopeless. Your grandpa, Neal Leagan, built this enterprise out of nothing. Where should I hide my face if all this got ruined and destroyed by my son who's carrying his name? We name you Neal Leagan after my father hoping you become a worthy man carrying his name not to trash his name," Neal's father's face got red with anger. "Get out! I think how to deal with you later."

"You always say you are busy as an excuse. You never actually do any effort to educate him," said Neal's mother, Sarah

"He's too hopeless to deal with. It's wasting my time, even a lifetime of effort wouldn't make a noticeable improvement on him," Neal's father said angrily. He hurriedly went outside to meet his angry clients.

Irritated, Neal went outside. He hated being treated harshly. He hated clients, he believed people should serve him not the other way round. He hated people shouting at him. He felt so furious and wandered aimlessly by himself when suddenly he saw Candy. It bothered him to see her walking with a big smile on her face. It's time to make her feel equally as miserable as he was.

Candy was always a cheerful girl. She was on the way to meet Archie, Stear, and their girls. They would visit the Pony's home together to celebrate one child's birthday. She felt very happy and excited. She was thinking all these wonderful things when she felt someone pull her hair. She turned around and saw Neal.

"Are you alone, Candy? Where are others?" Neal gave a wicked smile.

"Don't come near me, what do you want? No one wants to be with you!" said Candy in disgust.

Neal sniffed. "Trying to be rude and annoying, Pony girl?"

"No one can beat you in that!" answered Candy back with a hatred smile.

Neal tried to pull her other bun and Candy slapped his arm.

"Ooh! I am scared," he said obnoxiously.

"Go away from me, you dumb."

He laughed and tried to keep pulling her hair. Candy was annoyed and decided to run to the gate to meet the boys who would come to pick her up. She wished they were already there to protect her from Neal. She knew that Neal was afraid of Archie.

Neal ran after her and started to pull her hair obnoxiously.

"Go away!" shouted Candy. She tried to run as fast as she could and started to cry worried what awful things he'd do next.

Neal was very happy to make her miserable. It's so fun to make fun of Candy. Suddenly to Candy's relief, Archie appeared. Seeing him, Neal stopped chasing her.

"Coward! If you want, face me and leave her alone!" barked Archie. Candy hid behind Archie and sticked her tongue out to Neal.

Neal got scared to see Archie who came to back Candy. He avoided looking at Archie's eyes and ran away. He heard Candy laugh at him from the far.

Neal felt even more annoyed. As usual Candy got some back up. He was thinking of an even dirtier scheme. He would make sure there's no Archie or Stear around. He was thinking how to do it and got an idea. He would allure her to a middle of nowhere. He'd make her come to one of the Leagans' empty mansion and locked her there. She'd be scared and begged for his mercy. He laughed cunningly, satisfied at his dirty scheme .

I'll say that Terry wants to see her. With that actor's name, I am sure she'll fall to my trap, Neal thought.

The plan was set. Neal asked his driver, James, to pick up Candy and told her that Terry was waiting for her. One night, James came to pick up Candy from the hospital when she got off from work. James told her that he came to take her to see Terry upon his request.

Terry is here, Candy thought excitedly.

She wondered if Terry finally decided to be with her instead of Susanna. What a happy possibility! Candy entered the car with a high hope. The car moved and went deeper and deeper into the darkness. She found it weird that Terry would meet her in the middle of nowhere. Finally, to her relieved, the car stopped. She entered the empty mansion as planned by Neal. Neal was already inside waiting for her. He's ready to execute his wicked plan.

"Mr. Leagan, Ms. Candy is here," said James to notify his master about her presence. Neal dismissed him.

"Terry?" Neal heard Candy's voice.

To her surprised, she saw Neal instead of Terry. She's a bit frightened considering it's dark outside and in the middle of nowhere. This time she's really alone without Archie, Stear, or Albert around. She felt so stupid to fall to Neal's trap. Why would Terry meet her here? He's in New York. He would have told her first if he had really come to see her in Chicago.

Neal hurriedly ran to the door ready to lock it. Unexpectedly, when he was about to lock the door, he saw a very bright light and suddenly everything went dark. He felt everything around him buzzing and spinning, rotating faster and faster. Then, he felt he's falling to a hole deeper and deeper.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Finally everything stopped moving, he opened his eyes cautiously. To his surprise, he found himself on a bed in a room of a poor looking house. It's not in the empty mansion as he had been before. His conscience told him that this was his house. He slowly got up from the bed and looked around. Suddenly, the door opened and a woman entered the room. Neal almost screamed in surprise.

"Neal? Are you okay? Is your fever gone?" asked the woman examining his startling face.

"Mother?" said Neal. Although he never met her before, his conscience told him that she's his mother.

Neal saw her going back outside to call for Aaron.

Father? My father is Aaron. Again something within him telling him that.

He looked around to see where he was. It's a small wooden room with decrepit furniture. The walls were made of decaying wooden board. There's a small creaking bed on the side which was his. On the other side of the wall, there's a doorway with a piece of old cloth hanging on it as a divider to the another room. The roof was made of hay. The room was very small, there was not even enough room to swing a cat. There was no flooring. The floor was just some ground soil dirt. He then look at his clothes. Even his clothes was different, he didn't wear his usual suit instead it's some shabby clothes with some holes here and there. His hands were not as clean as they used to be.

This is me in my house! How come am I here? I am supposed to be in that empty mansion with Candy!

There's a wooden table in the center. He walked to the table and saw a newspaper. The printing looked different, the name was unrecognizable. The news looked different too. Accidentally, he saw the date. The year was 1868. He almost fainted realizing what might happen.

1868! Oh, my Lord! Could it be that I went back in time? I became grandfather Neal Leagan when he was a young man!

He remembered that his grandpa's name was Neal too and his father's name was Aaron just like what he just heard. Grandpa Neal was poor when he was young. All fit and seemed to explain what happened.

When his mother entered the room again with a man which his conscience told him was his father, Neal was very scared. He leaned on the table and looked at them frozen. His father was much older than her mother. He had wrinkles and gray hair already. His mother looked about the same age as his own mother in his own world, perhaps younger. She was a very gentle and kind woman. Her face looked very kind. He wasn't afraid of her.

His conscience told him that they were his parents, but he's too stunt to accept it. This can't be true!

In confusion, Neal opened wide his mouth and eyes. He moved a few steps backward when they came to approach him.

His mother, Martha, approached him and said, " Neal, are you okay? You had a high fever last night." She took him gently to his bed.

Neal was terrified, he almost asked her to go away but her gentleness made him do what she said. He stayed in bed as she asked and used the opportunity to cool down and to avoid interacting with them. That night, he lied down in bed thinking what had happened. What weird was he knew everything in there as though he really had lived there all of his life. Was it really possible that he traveled back in time and became his grandpa Neal? He thought that could only happen in a novel. He's hoping that it's only a dream and all would be fine and went back to normal when he woke up tomorrow.

However, too bad, when Neal woke up the following day, the situation was still the same. He was still in the same house, the same parents and the same situation, he was still the young grandpa Neal.

-TO BE CONTINUED-

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Summary of this chapter: Neal went back in time to the year 1868. He became his grandpa Neal when he was young. His parents now are his great grandparents Martha and Aaron.

What about Candy? Please check the next chapter :D

Thank you so much for reading.